1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method or a system for processing a structured document having a structure such as classification and sectioning, and, in particular, to application of a template for structured documents.
2. Related Art
Structuring of electronic documents using a markup language such as XML (extensible Markup Language) or HTML (HyperText Markup Language) or using a language that has a similar description capability has become common practice, in order to facilitate processing and reuse of an electronic document. When a structured electronic document (hereinafter simply referred to as “structured document”) is reused, another document is created from information included in the structured document by applying a template to the structured document.
In actual use of the structured document, there is a demand to select necessary portions from multiple structured documents and assemble these portions to create various electronic documents corresponding to various objects and uses. For example, a user may wish to create parts of a product manual separately as structured documents and to create a manual in a format for printing or distribution (for example, PDF (Portable Document Format) format) from the structured documents of the parts, or to create a manual including one or multiple HTML documents for presentation as a webpage or the like.
When files of multiple structured documents forming the basis for the individual electronic documents corresponding to the objects and the use are to be stored, the files are classified into and stored in a group of folders having a hierarchical structure for file management purposes. In many cases, the hierarchical structure of folders is created on the basis of classification from one or multiple viewpoints, such as the field to which the content of the group of the document to be stored in the folder belongs and attributes of the document such as the section created by the document. Therefore, the hierarchical structure of the folders can be considered to include certain information related to the classification of the structured documents.